Stormwater Management

Stormwater management is how we control stormwater runoff for the purposes of reducing downstream erosion, water quality degradation, and flooding, as well as mitigating the adverse effects of land uses on the aquatic environment.

Proper management of stormwater runoff minimizes damage to public and private property, reduces the effects of development on land, controls stream channel erosion, reduces local flooding, and maintains after development, as nearly as possible, the predevelopment runoff characteristics.

Most development of land for any residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional uses must have measures in place to control or manage stormwater runoff. Exemptions to the requirements of stormwater management are agricultural land management activities, some additions or modifications to existing single-family detached residential structures, developments that do not disturb over 5,000 square feet of land area and land development activities that are determined by MDE to be regulated under specific state laws which provide for managing stormwater runoff.